The falling silver beam did not level the academy. Instead, like billions of fine needles, it pierced precisely into the pores of every student.
"Ah—!"
Screams merged into a single chorus. The students felt their life force being violently siphoned up along their spines, converging toward a throbbing heart deep beneath the ground.
Lu Cen's face darkened. In that instant, he felt the silver bloodline within him nearly burst out of his body, answering the call of its mother source.
[System Alert: All personnel's physical energy degrading… Current synchronization rate: 16%…]
"You want to use my people as batteries? Then you'll have to answer to my bones first!"
Lu Cen let out a thunderous roar. He spun sharply and pressed his left hand—its phalanges already fully silvered—firmly against the crack in the magic-sealing stone pillar.
Buzz—!
A ring-shaped wave of dark gold physical force swept outward.
By forcefully using the system's Physics Inertia Lock, Lu Cen reversed all the drained physical energy into a mirror image within the pillar's magnetic field.
The falling silver light struck an unyielding shield. Not only did the siphoning stop, but the light also turned into pure kinetic energy, feeding back into every student's body.
"Grab the stones! Move!" Lu Cen's voice boomed like a heavy hammer.
The students, who had been on the verge of collapse, now felt their hearts pounding wildly. A savage power surged from the soles of their feet straight to their brains.
Three days later.
The midday sun at the outpost blazed like fire, and the air rippled transparently in the extreme heat.
"One, two! Push—!"
Elder Batu stood bare-chested, his aged skin sunburnt to a deep purple. He was directing fifty non-magic students in a line.
Each student carried a 200-jin magic-sealing stone brick on their shoulders.
They used no magic adhesive—only their physical strength to force the bricks into the deep, pre-dug rock slots.
Amid violent friction, the stones let out sharp, cracking sounds, sparks flying everywhere.
Lu Cen stood barefoot on the thousand-jin giant foundation stone. Sweat rolled down the chiseled grooves of his marble-like abdominal muscles, evaporating the moment it hit the stone surface.
[System Prompt: Extreme Academy "Brick-Moving Plan" efficiency boost: 300%.]
[All personnel's stamina shared… Host's physical energy reserve automatically refilled.]
"Lu Cen, if you build it like this, the first gust of wind will knock it down."
Silvia panted beside him. She had just finished a ten-kilometer run, her tactical leather armor soaked in sweat, clinging tightly to her striking figure.
"Here, paper and magic glue are all garbage."
Lu Cen leaped down. The instant he landed, he stomped violently into the gap between the bricks.
Boom—!
It was not a vibration, but a local vacuum created by absolute physical pressure.
The students watched in shock as the tiny stone fragments between the bricks instantly weathered into the finest powder under that single stomp.
Driven by the pressure difference, the powder was forced into the cracks. Then, under Lu Cen's high-frequency muscle vibrations, it locked molecularly with the bricks.
The one-man-tall wall now became a single solid mass, glowing with a cold, gray metallic luster.
Around the bend of the distant canyon, Viscount Barker's magic carpet reappeared—this time with three high-ranking earth mages in taupe robes behind him.
"Lu Cen! This is your proud wall?" Barker shrieked, venom blazing in his eyes.
"Cast Earth Collapse! Turn his life's work to dust!"
The three earth mages raised their staffs in unison, slamming the tips into the ground.
Rumble—!
The entire canyon's earth began to churn violently. Fan-shaped earth shockwaves, powerful enough to tear apart fortifications, swept toward the academy wall.
The students, already pushed to their physical limits, went weak in the knees and nearly fell.
"Don't back down! Stand firm!"
Lu Cen stepped in front of the formation. He cast no shield. Instead, he took a deep breath, his chest heaving like a bellows.
He stretched out his hands and grabbed empty air—as if seizing the invisible shockwaves themselves.
[System Prompt: Assessing physical defense strength… Condition met: Thermodynamic Reversal!]
[Unlocked Passive: All forms of vibration energy can be converted into Muscle Restructuring Energy.]
"A'er, take everyone and catch this energy!" Lu Cen roared.
He channeled the destructive shockwave into his own body, then gently distributed the energy through the ground into every student's legs.
To their astonishment, the students found their once-sore, splitting muscles now growing wildly the moment they touched the spell's aftershock.
This was physical forced evolution.
The three earth mages, having overexerted their mana output, were instead reversely "absorbed" by Lu Cen. Their staffs shattered instantly.
Viscount Barker tumbled off his magic carpet in terror, scrambling and fleeing into the mist—leaving behind a black leather folder.
Lu Cen walked over and flicked the folder open with his toe.
The second he flipped to the first page, he froze completely.
Inside lay a faded photograph.
It was his mother, inside a cultivation tank covered in mechanical gears, her expression peaceful yet desperate.
On the edge of the photo, a line of pitch-black imperial confidential annotation stood out:
[Original Container Sample No. 001: Successfully degraded via sacred waste. Offspring naturally possesses "Physical Collapse" trait.]
"Mother…" Lu Cen's voice trembled. For the first time, the silver fire in his eyes turned to pure darkness.
His eighteen years of being a useless trash had only been a lab report for Cedric to observe how a "physical monster" would grow.
[System Prompt: Clue completed. You are not a non-magic user. You are the only… Antimatter Core in this world.]
Silvia approached. The moment she saw the photo, she covered her mouth.
"That's… the mother engine room of the Sanctuary…"
The extraction valve at the back of her neck blazed bright red, letting out a sharp alarm.
Lu Cen snapped his head up.
On the distant mechanical tower, a giant, blood-red mechanical eye slowly rotated, locking its gaze onto him.
I've kept the pacing tight, action punchy, and system messages snappy — perfect for North American web novel readers.
Would you like me to also polish this into a fully publishable, smooth English chapter with zero literal-translation vibes?